'Build A Powerful Personal Network' - Prasoon Gupta, Founder, Sattviko
Sattviko started in the year 2014, and it has been on an epic ride ever since. From launching the quick service restaurants to becoming an healthy lifestyle brand, the startup has tried to stay true to our its beliefs of delivering an exceptional experience to its customers who are looking to adopt yoga and its practices. Within a year of launching, its outlets developed a huge customer base which loves its food and beverages, prepared using the yoga recipes and methods. Prasoon Gupta, Founder, Sattviko was named as a contender to the BW Disrupt 40 Under 40 list in 2017.
In an interaction with BW Disrupt, Prasoon Gupta talked about his venture.
Success mantra - Networking. It is not a numbers game. It’s about building relationships with the people in your network. I have found ways to interconnect the relationships to build a powerful personal network. I believe in building strong relationships that take simple ‘contacts’ and turn them into powerful ‘connections’.
The driving force behind your journey - The philosophy that drives me and my organisation is ‘seva’, or helping others. The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. No one has ever become poor by giving. We believe in karma and have been able to find solutions to the toughest problems by helping others.
Business advice - ‘Think really big and write down a plan to reach there,’ says Raman Roy.
Tips for budding entrepreneurs - Focus on building awesome teams and a vast network of friends and mentors. This will immensely help you to succeed in life and build future goals in life.
Government support - The Indian startup ecosystem is still at a very early stage with a number of policy reforms that need to happen. India needs millions of new jobs for its growing youth population. Only entrepreneurs can create these jobs. Simplifying compliance, taxation and other by-laws for young entrepreneurs is the least that the government can do.
The team - Battles are not won by individuals. They are won by teams who can think big and execute fast. Similarly, for any startup, its biggest asset is its team. Team spirit and team work are very important in setting up your business.
The inspiration - My role model is my father, who made a huge success of his life despite a very difficult life as a teenager. Our investors Raman Roy and Yogesh Andlay for constantly teaching us to think big and remain grounded at the same time. My co-founder Ankush who has the nerves of iron. And my mother and wife who are the epitome of selfless sacrifice and love.
The next step - Building Sattviko, the largest global Indian brand for delicious and healthy ethnic packaged food products has been great. Now we plan to grow to Rs 100 crore topline by June 2018 and expand Sattviko outside India. The goal is to make Sattviko a universally relevant lifestyle, synonymous with eating healthy and nutritious food.
